Super Eagles Manager, Jose Peseiro was in attendance as Nottingham Forest’s marksman, Taiwo Awoniyi churned a Man of the Match performance in the Reds’ English Premier League game with Chelsea on Sunday evening.
The Portuguese cheered the fearless striker as Nottingham Forest held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw.
Awoniyi tormented the Chelsea backline and was deservedly named the Man of the Match with 39.7% of the votes ahead of Ivorian defender, Serge Aurier, who scored the equaliser for Nottingham Forest.
After the game, Peseiro who seemingly liked the work rate and personality of Awoniyi, congratulated the former Union Berlin striker and urged him to keep working hard.
Awoniyi also had the full complement of his family members who were in England for the New Year celebration with the striker who has played in most of the Reds’ games this season.
The 25-year-old has scored three goals in 15 league appearances for Steve Cooper’s side.
Relishing his first MoTM award in the EPL, Awoniyi has shared his excitement on the social media saying: “Thankful to have gotten my first ever premier league MOTM award.
“However, I am also disappointed a spirited performance from the team didn’t end with three points. We keep pushing.”
Forest are now third from bottom of the Premier League standings with 14 points from 17 matches.They will face struggling Southampton next tomorrow at the St Mary’s Stadium in another league tie.
Meanwhile, Forest’s manager Steve Cooper believed Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Chelsea would bolster the confidence of his wards, adding ‘his players can take belief from their performance against Chelsea at The City Ground.
“If anybody deserved to win the game, it should have been us,” said Cooper.
“If you look at the chances in the game, we created the real chances and their goal is slightly unfortunate.
“He added: “We were good tactically in the first half but didn’t show enough aggression.
“Second half we changed our mentality, our aggression and we timed our press better and that led to the better performance. We know we have players that can make a difference, we’re positive about the good things we did but also frustrated because it could’ve been a win.
“It does give you belief, it gives you reference points and we’re going to continue to improve. The belief was good but that has to be the minimum now going into the game against Southampton.”
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
